I started the book tour on September 5 at Charlin’s Book Nook in Frankenmuth, Michigan. The Honest Wilderness wasn’t officially released until September 8, so that first appearance came before most people even had a chance to read it.
I had spent a long time with the material that went into the book. Time on trails, historical research, journals, and the questions that came out of looking at Daniel Boone’s life alongside my own. Writing it was mostly work I did by myself. Now I was taking that same story out to meet people.
I’ve been asked what stands out most about the tour so far. My answer isn’t a particular sales number or a list of bookstores. It’s the people who’ve taken the time to talk with me.
The People I Keep Thinking About
Retired medic Kenneth Harris is one of them. He came up to meet me and talk, and I haven’t forgotten it. When I think back over the tour, that’s one of the first encounters that comes to mind.
I also met a descendant of Daniel Boone. After the hours I’ve spent studying Boone, that was something special to me. Most of my research involves looking at what other people left behind: accounts, maps, the ground itself. Then I have a conversation with somebody whose own family history is connected to the person I’ve been studying.
I can’t tell their stories for them. I only know how much it meant to me that they took the time to talk.
So have the conversations I’ve had with everyone else along the way. I’ve talked with people interested in the history, people interested in the outdoors, and people who recognized something from their own lives in what I wrote. Sometimes we start with the book and end up talking about something neither of us could have planned ahead of time.
I didn’t know that would become such a large part of what I took away from the tour.
Speaking About My Own Life
One thing has changed in a way I can see clearly: I’ve become much more comfortable standing in front of people and speaking about my journey.
That means a lot when the book you’re discussing is personal. I can sit down with a journal, go off on a hike, or spend hours researching one question. I’m used to working things out that way. Speaking about those experiences in a room full of people takes a different kind of practice.
The tour has given me that practice. Each appearance has been another chance to talk, answer questions, and hear what other people are thinking. I’ve grown more comfortable being there and having those conversations.
It’s also begun opening doors. I’m meeting people I might not have met, connecting with other writers, and seeing opportunities for the work to go in directions I hadn’t considered before. I don’t know yet what all of those opportunities will become. I’m paying attention to them.
What I Went Looking for in Daniel Boone
Before the tour, before the book was finished, I was trying to understand Daniel Boone beyond the version of him most of us were taught.
I wanted to know the history. Where he actually traveled. What the records tell us. What we can reasonably say about a man who lived more than two hundred years ago, and what we can’t.
At the same time, my own life had left me with questions about identity, loss, and resilience. I kept returning to the history, and I kept returning to those questions.
In one of my author talks, I said I had started by asking why Daniel Boone kept moving. Eventually I had to ask myself the same thing.
That’s a large part of what The Honest Wilderness became. I’m not telling readers that Boone had the answers to my life. I’m telling them what happened when I studied his and began taking a closer look at my own.
Being able to talk about that in public, and to hear how others respond, has added a whole new part to the work.
Ohio Author Fest
On October 10, I took part in the Ohio Author Festival at the Crossroads Branch of the Guernsey County District Public Library in Cambridge, Ohio. I sat down with fellow writer Jarod Anderson for a recorded conversation about mental health, the outdoors, and writing.
Those are subjects I’ve been talking about for years through Project Mindfully Outdoors. It was good to have the opportunity to sit down with another writer and discuss them in person.
What I enjoy about that kind of conversation is that we don’t have to come into it with the same experiences. Jarod has his, I have mine. We can both talk about what the outdoors has meant in our lives without trying to make our stories identical.
The conversation was recorded, so people who weren’t at the festival can watch it here:
Watch: Mental Health and the Outdoors — Mike Martin and Jarod Anderson
When Somebody Else Finds Something Useful
There’s another part of this tour I’ve been thinking about a great deal.
I knew people might relate to the experiences I wrote about. What I’ve begun to see is that some people are taking parts of my story and using them as a tool in their own lives.
That is different from having somebody tell you they enjoyed your book.
It means they’ve found something they can take away and work with. Maybe it helps them look at a question differently. Maybe it gives them another way to think about what they’re dealing with. I can’t decide that for them, and I wouldn’t want to.
I wrote about my own experiences because they were the experiences I knew. There were things I needed to understand about the person I had been, what had changed, and what I wanted to do with who I am now.
I don’t have a set of instructions that will work for everybody. A walk in the woods isn’t a cure for grief or hardship. Reading a book isn’t one either. But being able to recognize something of your own experience in another person’s words can be useful. That’s what people have begun showing me.
It’s made me think more seriously about what happens after I leave a bookstore or finish an author talk. The conversation doesn’t necessarily have to end there.
The Next Part of the Work
I still have appearances ahead of me this November, so this isn’t a final account of the tour. There’s more to come.
I’m also getting ready for something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. In April 2027, I plan to begin hiking the Boone Trace, following the route Daniel Boone and his company marked toward Kentucky in 1775.
My plan is to arrive at Long Island, Tennessee, on April 3 and begin walking April 5. Right now the work is research, route planning, and sorting out where the historical route can be followed safely in the modern landscape. I want to be as accurate as the evidence allows, and I want to be clear about the places where the evidence doesn’t give us a certain answer.
The hike will also support a fundraiser for Breakthrough T1D. Part of my goal is to raise awareness of type 1 diabetes and direct donations to an organization doing work for people affected by it. Donations go to Breakthrough T1D, not to pay for my expedition.
The history matters. The fundraiser matters. And the people I’ve met during the book tour have me thinking about another possibility, too.
I’d like to build more room for people to talk with one another through Project Mindfully Outdoors. A place where somebody can share what they’ve been through, what they’ve learned, or what they’re still trying to understand, and another person can join that conversation.
I started with a book about the questions I was asking in my own life. Now I’m meeting people who are bringing their own questions to it. I don’t want to overlook what can grow out of that.
Thank You
To everybody who has come out to an event, invited me to speak, read the book, or stopped to talk: thank you.
Kenneth Harris, the Boone descendant I met, the people at Ohio Author Fest, and the many others I’ve spoken with have all given me something to think about. You’ve helped me become more comfortable sharing my own story. You’ve also helped me understand that it can be useful to other people in ways I hadn’t expected.
The book tour is still going. So is the research, and the planning for Boone Trace. I’ll keep sharing what I learn along the way.
— Mike Martin
Continue following the journey
Explore The Honest Wilderness and my books
Listen to my author talk: When Boone Became the Mirror
Follow the 2027 Boone Trace expedition
Support my official Breakthrough T1D fundraiser
